ATLANTA -- With all the talk of Cy Young Awards, playoff experience, 11 straight divisional titles and home-field advantage, most people across America expected the Giants to waltz into Atlanta and crawl home down by two games. But after praising the Braves' pitching staff for several minutes, Barry Bonds said it best Sunday morning.

"We don't have any Cy Youngs," he said. "We have gutsy players that play."

Apparently, that's all they need. Behind a truly gutsy performance by Russ Ortiz in just his second postseason appearance, the underdog Giants got off to a fast start and survived two late rallies to take Game 1 from the Braves, 8-5, before 41,903 fans at Turner Field. Ortiz (1-0) earned a victory in his seventh straight start dating back to Aug. 28 while his teammates chased two-time Cy Young Award winner Tom Glavine from the game after five innings.

If anything, Ortiz and the Giants should have been worried about Glavine's bat. With a three-run lead in the second inning, Ortiz opted to intentionally walk Keith Lockhart, Atlanta's No. 8 hitter, to face Glavine (0-1) with the bases loaded and two outs. Ortiz put a 1-1 fastball just off the plate and the Braves' pitcher slapped it down the left-field line to drive home a pair of runs and get his team back in the game.
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ATLANTA -- As Tom Glavine prepared to face the Giants in the opening game of the Division Series, he knew he would have to be careful with Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent.

But as Glavine quickly realized during the Braves' 8-5 loss to the Giants at Turner Field on Wednesday afternoon, there are plenty of other players in the San Francisco lineup that can provide damage.

Glavine, who was making his record 31st career postseason start, limited Kent and Bonds to a single. But by the time the veteran southpaw had exited the Turner Field mound after five disappointing innings, he had been rudely introduced to the bottom of the Giants lineup.

After retiring the first four batters of the game, Glavine ran into trouble with one out in the second inning. Benito Santiago's single to right was the first of four straight hits the Giants would record in the three-run inning. The three runs were accounted for by a J.T. Snow two-run double and an RBI single by David Bell, who was batting eighth.

"Everything that could go wrong, seemed to go wrong," Glavine said. "Basically I did a good job of eliminating Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. Unfortunately the other seven guys did a better job." More >